Krishna Poonia unlikely to get Khel Ratna award

NDTV has learnt that discus thrower Krishna Poonia's plea to be reconsidered for the country's highest sporting honour, the Khel Ratna award, will be ignored. Krishna Poonia was at the Sports Ministry for more than 5 hours on Tuesday, trying to make her case on the basis of the fact that in 2003 shooter Anjali Bhagwat was given the Khel Ratna after she was initially ignored.

This was the second time in 6 days that the discus thrower met the Sports Minister, Jitendra Singh in the national capital. Poonia was trying to get the Minister to reconsider her case for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award. Speaking to NDTV, Poonia said that she met the Sports Minister but that he didn't give her a time within which a decision will be made.

Speaking to NDTV, Sports Minister Jitendra Singh was in no mood to divulge details saying, "We were working towards the long term promotion of sports but hopefully tomorrow (Wednesday) we will deal with other matters." On being asked about Haryana MP Deepinder Hooda meeting him about Poonia's case the Minister said "No, he was here for some other matters. Let's talk about the development of sports."

Deepender Hooda though was more forthcoming about his efforts to try and convince the Minister to add Poonia's name to the Khel Ratna list saying, "I met the Sports Minister regarding the Khel Ratna. Krishna Poonia is a deserving candidate and that is the feeling amongst us. I apprised him of that sentiment. That's it."

The decision on Krishna Poonia may have been delayed by at least another day but NDTV has learnt that the discuss thrower is likely to miss out on the top award this time around.